


💌 you have [1] new message! 💌

by ferne



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Online Dating, Cats, Character's Name Spelled as Hanji, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Hanji also works as a adjunct prof, Hanji runs a science tiktok account, Humor, Levi Ackerman & Mikasa Ackerman Are Related, Levi and Hanji both use Tiktok, Levi runs a baking tiktok account, Long-Distance Relationship, M/M, Multi, Nonbinary Hange Zoë, Other, Social Media, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, both of them have pet cats whom they love very much, levihan - Freeform, they meet via the internet and chaos ensues (as it always does with Levihan)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-11
Updated: 2021-02-11
Packaged: 2021-03-17 19:22:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,669
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29355651
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ferne/pseuds/ferne
Summary: The recipe is not going well.That’s an understatement, considering the lumpy pan of cake in front of Levi. The recipe is going terribly. Beyond terrible really. One sample bite tells him what he needs to know: he’d left out the baking soda. No baking soda equals no lift, hence the monstrosity that looks more like a squashed brick than anything resembling the beginning of a spice cake.And of course, he’d used all his flour up. Fucking hell. It’s just not his night (or week, really).* * *Levi never planned on having a social media following. Hell, he never planned on having social media at all, but here he is, running a semi-popular anonymous baking account on Tiktok called ‘Levi’s Kitchen’ featuring his cats and favorite cute recipes.Through his platform, he meets the charming, eccentric biologist and fellow cat-enthusiast, Hanji. The two embark on an unexpected long-distance companionship that has Levi questioning everything he ever knew about romance (which...wasn’t much, to begin with).
Relationships: Erwin Smith/Mike Zacharias, Furlan Church/Isabel Magnolia, Levi/Hange Zoë
Comments: 12
Kudos: 39





	💌 you have [1] new message! 💌

The recipe is not going well. 

That’s an understatement, considering the lumpy pan of cake in front of Levi. The recipe is going terribly. Beyond terrible really. One sample bite tells him what he needs to know: he’d left out the baking soda. No baking soda equals no lift, hence the monstrosity that looks more like a squashed brick than anything resembling the beginning of a spice cake. 

And of course, he’d used all his flour up. Fucking hell. It’s just not his night (or week, really). 

One of his cats, Cannelle, butts up against his legs, purring softly. He sighs, bending down to scratch behind her ears. 

“I know, it’s not that bad,” he mutters, patting her head once more before straightening up. “But it’s not great exactly either.” 

He glances over at the clock above the stove. It’s already quarter to eleven. And he’s got to be at work by eight. Realistically, that means he needs to be up by seven (hey, he’s not a morning person) and so at the latest, he should be in bed by one. Factor in how long it’ll take to remake the cake, wait for it to cool, and then frost it….in short he’s completely screwed. 

It’s physically impossible to pull all of it together in time. He’ll be able to make the cake but there’s no way to frost it without it all melting or him staying up till the ass crack of dawn. Which means he’ll just have to push the frosting off till tomorrow night. Fine. Shitty, but fine. It'll be an editing crunch to get the video out on time, but he can manage it if he has to.  


None of that solves the lack of flour issue, though. 

No, for that he’ll have to venture into the outside world and get said flour.

He double-checks the cats’ water, topping off their respective bowls, before gritting his teeth and shrugging back on his boots. It’s mid-November and already far, far too cold for his liking. Despite his sometimes-frosty demeanor, Levi’s a warm-weather person, far happier during the spring warm-up than the fall (though he has to admit, the autumn colors are nice for the fleeting week that they fill the city each year). 

After insulating himself against the cold with his heavy winter parka and wool scarf, he heads out, locking his apartment behind himself. Thankfully, there are mostly families in his building and the hall and stairs are quiet. 

It’s only a short walk to the bus stop. He’d sold his junk car from college upon moving, resigning himself to public transit for the sake of environmentalism (and his wallet). It’s not that bad though, not compared to some of the places he’s lived. The bus is clean and relatively empty, with only a few late-night commuters joining him on the ride. 

Realistically, he could go to the convenience store that’s only a few blocks away, but if he’s going out, he might as well go through the trouble of actually going to a proper grocery store for the growing list of ingredients he’s run out of since last week’s shop. Besides shopping at an off-hour means the store won’t be crowded at least.

He pulls out his phone, swiping by the burst of puppy photos waiting for him (his childhood best friends who’d recently adopted a disgustingly cute border collie about a month ago and the frequent pictures had yet to cease). Isabel and Farlan’s dog is adorable, but he can only bear so much. 

Instead, he pulls up Tiktok, pushing down his embarrassment over even  _ having _ the app, much less enjoying it so much. After aimlessly swiping through his For You Page for a few minutes, he switches over to his inbox to reply to comments on his post from earlier in the evening (back before his evening baking became such a nightmare). 

At first, he’d been adamantly against getting the app, happy with posting his cooking videos solely on his Youtube channel,  _ Levi’s Kitchen _ .

Hell, even that feels like too much at times. Like he’s sharing more of himself than he’s ready to with the world (which is ridiculous, he’s thirty-fucking-years-old, not some kid). This is why he’s structured his channel the way he has. He posts baking videos, featuring whatever treat he’s settled on stress-baking to distract himself from the pressures of his actual job as an accountant. At first, it had just been simple videos of his hands and the ingredients, but ever since he included a blooper of his cats, by popular demand, he allowed them to make cameos in his work. He doesn’t show his face. On the rare occasion that he has to show a shot that’s wider than just his workspace, he’s careful to trim it at the neck. 

While for the most part, it’s out of a genuine desire not to be recognized in the public, he also just can’t handle the onslaught of appearance-based feedback he’s sure to receive. He does  _ not _ feel like hearing about his sour expression and eyebags from strangers on the internet (Erwin already gives him more than enough shit about his sleep schedule—or lack thereof). 

That’s part of why Tiktok had felt so strange at first. It feels more...personal. However, after following a few other baking and recipe accounts (and about a dozen that are just cute cats because, hell, he could use the serotonin boost) he’d begun to post his own content. 

Ironically, fate would have it that his Tiktok content does better than his Youtube would, nine times out of ten. Still with close to 200k followers when combining the two he can’t help but feel a little proud of his anonymous social media presence. 

The feeling is only amplified as he reads over various comments asking about recipe specifics and mentions of his followers’ favorite recipes. It’s nice. Surreal, but nice.

Today though, there’s one thing dominating his inbox. There are hundreds, maybe thousands of people tagging him in a video from @scientisthanji. Every once in a while this happens—some actually popular food TikToker will duet him and then there’s an absolute clusterfuck of notifications. Usually, though, he’s at least a  _ little _ aware of who the account is. Not this one though.

After a moment’s hesitation, he shrugs and pulls up the video in question. It's….not whatever he thought it would be. 

A few days ago he'd posted a Tiktok, just a silly short video with the camera set so that it was a side view of his kitchen as he made pancakes (honestly he has no idea where the  _ burning need _ to have buttermilk pancakes for dinner had come from but they were fucking delicious). The caption was a stupid joke " _ POV: your my significant other watching me make pancakes at 2 am bc I thrive on chaos _ " provided to him by Erwin after he’d been unable to come up with anything on his own. He’d posted the video and hadn’t thought about it since. 

There's a duet though and at first, he's not sure what he's looking at. The screen is mostly black with only an eerie blue glow lighting faintly illuminating a face. After a second, he figures out what’s happening: a person is laying down while looking at their phone in the dark. There’s a staunch white bandage wrapped around one side of their face, covering one of their eyes. After a second they begin speaking: 

_ "I know it's kinda incredibly dumb to be tearing up over this guy's video, and I know this isn’t science-related, but give me some leeway guys, my eye hurts….I guess the For You Page really said ‘for you’ tonight because someone making me pancakes sounds so nice. Like, just domestic cute stuff you know? Fuck, I sound pathetic, but like, being single just fucking sucks sometimes. Because you get home and everything's just...quiet. Even when you have cats as great as my cats—I’m sorry Sawney and Bean—but you guys won’t make me pancakes. Ugh, anyways, the anesthesia from my surgery is wearing off so I’m going to bed. Someone remind me to delete this, please. Over and out y’all.” _

Their voice is thick with tears and exhaustion that's more than a little familiar to Levi.

He'd be lying if he said there wasn't a tightness in his chest as he stares at the blurry face on his screen. He hadn't expected anyone to pay much attention to the video, much less be...moved by it. 

It's sweet and also wildly  _ unsettling _ . And sort of feels like a punch to the throat considering how fucking relatable it is.

Levi’s not lonely per se. It’s more that he’s just acutely  _ aware. _ He’s aware of just how happy Isabel and Farlan are together. Same with Erwin and Mike. He’s not jealous of them, hell, both couples had danced around one another for so long that when they’d finally gotten together, all he’d felt was relief. Seeing all the strife his friends had been through because of their feelings has often made him feel grateful to have yet to find anyone he’s genuinely interested in. Most of the time being alone feels like a blessing. But still, the words resonate with him. There are moments he can’t quite ignore just how completely  _ solitary _ his life is.

Instead of returning to answering comments, he scrolls over to look at the user’s profile. 

_ Hanji. She/They. 28. scientist & caretaker of Sawney and Bean  _

Huh. That’s…an unusual mix—a scientist and cat fanatic who also likes baking videos. Not necessarily how he envisioned his target audience but not unwelcome by any means. 

The most recent video is a follow-up, apparently about the eye surgery that she underwent. It looks...somewhat grisly. While he’d be lying if he said he wasn’t curious, he’s not sure he feels up to watching what he can only guess will be a highly informative video on eye surgery. So instead he taps on one with an image of two (absolutely fucking adorable) cats in the thumbnail. 

It’s a video about the role of different proteins in cats’ diets, specifically about which types of meat are safe for them to consume in moderation. Hanji’s two cats, a black long-haired kitten named Bean, and an adult cat with short brown fur called Sawney each munch happily on tiny cubes of cooked chicken. In the background is Hanji speaking, their voice crisp, coherent, and filled with a warm excitement that’s entirely different from the video he’d been tagged in. She rattles off long names of different proteins that are found in the meats and why those proteins are beneficial for cats. The scientific information smoothly goes in one ear and out the other, but it’s enjoyable to watch nonetheless. 

It’s only when he reaches his stop that he realizes that he’s spent the entire ride scrolling through their videos, and—perhaps even more alarming—grinning like a kid in a candy store.

Levi’s aware that he’s not a smiley person. He’s not as much of a grouch as people say, he’s just got a serious resting bitch face and a bit of mild (read:  _ moderate _ ) distrust of people. Which results in him looking like, well, whatever the fuck he usually looks like. 

Now though, his face hurts from smiling in a way it hasn’t in a long time.

By the time he’s reached the store, he’s been hit by a horrifying revelation: he should reply. No, not ‘should,’ he  _ has _ to reply. 

Originally, he might have simply ignored the duet, for both his and Hanji’s sake. They were not fully present while making the video, and if he’d posted an anesthesia-fueled rant about loneliness brought on by a video of a stranger cooking. There’s no  _ need _ for him to respond. No one would blame him or think that he was being rude. 

But there’s no way he’s not going to because he already knows exactly what he’s going to prepare (at least that’s the excuse he’s going with, for his sanity). 

Something warm and comforting but also relatively simple. 

Which is how he settles on hot chocolate with whipped cream and marshmallows. It’s perfect. He can show the perfect combination of both powder cocoa and bar chocolate, along with a quick homemade whipped cream. 

Besides, it’s way too late to try and remake that fucking cake. 

He puts in his earbuds and zooms through the supermarket at what must be Olympic speeds. After living in the same apartment and shopping at this store once a week for a couple of years, he’s got the layout entirely memorized, so it isn’t difficult to cruise through and pick out what he needs. 

After another bus ride and walk back to his apartment, made more cumbersome by his bags of groceries, he’s more than a little happy to return home. 

Neither of the cats greets him, no doubt having taken up their usual nightly post—covering his duvet in fur. He toes off his shoes and then deposits his groceries in the kitchen and forces himself to put them all away before he begins planning the setup for his response TikTok. 

It takes a mercifully short amount of time to film, in comparison to the cake monstrosity. It’s a single static shot from the front so that his hands and torso are visible as he carefully assembles the hot cocoa. Choux shoes up about halfway through, to hop on on the step stool he has beside his counter, and peer over the edge with her big orange eyes. 

The filming goes off without a hitch, and Levi can’t help but feel a little impressed with himself because really, it is a damn good hot cocoa recipe. 

The only problem is the message itself. Cutting together the video won’t take that long, he’s used to it by now and it’s not like he ever does any fancy editing. But subtitles take a while and he can feel a headache blooming behind his eyes. He could just bang them out in the morning on the way to work, but who knows if Hanji will have deleted their video by then? 

“Why does everything have to be so difficult?” 

There’s only one way he’s going to get this video out before the morning. Fuck. He sets his phone down, takes a long breath, and hits ‘record.’ 

* * *

Hanji has hoped for many things throughout their life: a kickass job, a Nobel prize, a life-time supply of gas-station nachos. Tiktok fame was not on her list. 

In truth, fame might be the wrong word, but she has no idea what else to call the just over a hundred thousand people that follow her. Relatively, they’re aware that their following is slight in comparison to actual popular users, but still. She’s a biologist, not a goddamn influencer. She posts videos because they make her happy to create and if other people like them too, then great (besides, who doesn’t love a little bit of validation). 

Still, it comes as a bit of a shock when they wake up and check their phone to see that their followers have jumped by 10K overnight. That is….certainly a bump up from their normal growth rate of a few thousand every month. 

She fumbles for her glasses, putting them on to double-check exactly what she’s looking at. Nope, no mistaking there.  _ What the actual hell?  _

She’s not awake enough for this. 

Before it can go off, they dismiss their alarm and clamber out of bed, making Sawney and Bean grumble in annoyance at the disturbance of their sleep. 

After hastily brushing her teeth, a five-minute shower, and a cup of coffee, she feels  _ slightly _ more prepared to see just what has happened on the internet overnight. 

Taking a long breath, she taps on her inbox and stares at the onslaught of notifications. There are several encouraging messages about her eye surgery video that she’ll have to come back to later. After a moment's further investigation, everything becomes clear. 

“Jesus fucking christ.” They sit back down on their bed, Bean scurrying over to drape across their lap. 

“Thanks for the moral support,” they mutter, running their fingers through the fluffy black cat’s fur. “We are in deep shit, my friend.” 

Levi’s Kitchen replied. There are dozens of pings from people tagging her in the comments of his video. 

With a groan she slumps forward, smoothing her face against Bean. 

“Why didn’t you remind me to delete that video? I thought we had a deal?” 

They meant to delete it. While they probably aren’t as embarrassed by it as they  _ should _ be, they want their account to be a positive, fun escape for people. A place where there are cute cats and fun science facts, and  _ not _ an almost-thirty-year-old professor complaining about their love life (or complete lack thereof). She’d thought that she’d set a reminder to delete it, but clearly, that hadn’t happened. 

And now there’s nothing to be done, but to watch his response. 

She sighs and sits up, angling her phone so that Bean can watch the Tiktok as well. 

“Ready?”  


Bean doesn’t reply, but that’s not exactly surprising. 

They tap on the video and wait. It loads quickly, showing a familiar shot of a kitchen (look, she may or may not have binge-watched a  _ totally healthy amount _ of Levi’s Kitchen videos while she was waiting to get out of the hospital. It’s completely normal to instantly recognize his kitchen, not weird at all). 

It’s a nice kitchen—far nicer than hers. Sparkling clean, painted with minimalist neutral grey colors, with little labeled jars of ingredients lined up on the counter. It might seem a bit cold and impersonal, except for the cat paw measuring spoons dangling off a hook on the wall, and the homemade-looking dish towels draped carefully over the oven door handle (made with cat print fabric, of course).

A cute handwritten title pops up over the still empty kitchen: 'Hot Cocoa + A Note.'

The next disappears as Levi walks into the shot, dressed in a black apron over a dark grey cable knit sweater (of course, his face isn't visible in the shot, not that she expected it to, clearly he was a private person). In his arms are a pile of ingredients that he sets down on the counter, along with a black mug with [a simple cat print design.](https://i.pinimg.com/564x/cd/4b/31/cd4b313301e5655f30225ab374a0fb9a.jpg)  


_ “Er, hey Hanji—”  _

She doesn’t hear anything else he says, because she lets out a yelp, nearly dropping her phone on Bean in shock. Bean leaps up off their lap with a meow, scurrying off to hide among the pillows at the top of the bed. 

What the actual fuck? 

She really doesn’t know much of anything about Levi. No one did. He didn’t show his face or even talk in his videos. Everything was done through neat little handwritten closed captions. 

Until now, apparently. 

They flop backward, lifting their phone again and restarting the Tiktok. 

_ “Er, hey Hanji, and anyone else watching this. I hope it’s okay if I just call you Hanji, feel free to yell at me in the comments if that’s too casual, or whatever.”  _ He lets out an awkward cough.  _ “Anyways, instructions and measurements for the recipe for this hot cocoa are going to be here.”  _

He points to the air beside him, where a little box with an ingredients list pops up. 

_ “So anyway—Jesus fucking christ this is why I don’t voice-overs—ANYWAYS, I saw your video and I hope you are recovering alright. Eye surgery sounds like an absolute nightmare.”  _ Levi’s voice is...nice for lack of a better word. Or at least they think it’s nice, honestly they’ve got no idea what makes a voice pleasant or not. Sure, his delivery is extremely awkward and stilted, but he’s got a calm, sincere tone. Relaxing, kind of. 

He fills up a saucepan with milk and heats it, stirring occasionally.  _ “I don’t know how comfortable you are in the kitchen, but this hot cocoa recipe is really, really simple, so if you make it, hopefully, it will help….ease your suffering, I don’t fucking know.”  _

She snorts. Now Levi’s lack of voiceovers is beginning to make sense. 

_ “Your right though—being single is shit at times, just like being in a relationship is, probably, also pretty shit some of the time. It’s pretty obnoxious though when it feels like the rest of the world is trying to cram your own like, singleness, wait, is that a word? Solitude—yeah that’s better—solitude in your face.”  _

He slips on an oven mitt with a pink paw print design before picking up the pot of steaming hot cocoa mixture and pouring it into the mug. 

_ “But you seem pretty cool. I mean, I don’t know what ‘cool’ even is anymore. But your cats are cute and I’m pretty sure I learned more actual science from watching your Tiktoks than I did in all of high school.”  _

Suddenly a pair of light brown ears appear over the side of the counter, followed by orange eyes peeking up to watch Levi’s hands dart around. 

_ “Choux says ‘hi’ as well. He hopes you are okay. I mean, he can’t talk, he’s a cat, but he’d probably say something like that if he could.”  _

Choux watches with wide eyes as Levi carefully assembles the drink, swirling a small mountain of whipped cream over the top, followed by a little bit of grated chocolate. 

_ “And ta-da, hot cocoa. Feel free to tag me if you end up seeing this or whatever. Okay, rambly voice-over complete.”  _

He slides the hot cocoa slightly closer to the camera, scoops up Choux, and walks out of frame, a moment before the video cuts out. 

Hanji lays there for a long moment, blinking at their phone in the dim morning light of their room. 

What the actual fuck has she gotten herself into? 

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone! I've wanted to write a modern!au levihan fic for so long. I hope you enjoyed this first chapter!! For reference, I envision the content Levi makes to be similar to that of [Nino's Home.](https://www.youtube.com/c/NinosHome/videos) Thank you for reading!! 
> 
> Feel free to say hi on tumblr, where I'm [@tragedists](https://tragedists.tumblr.com/)


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